Elsewhere in another front, the battlefield was in ruins.
The ground, once solid and unyielding, had been reduced to a fragmented wasteland of scorched earth and deep craters. Fires crackled across the desolation, their flickering glow illuminating the broken bodies that lay strewn across the battlefield, all belonging to the forces of the alliance of humans, elves, and dwarves. The once-mighty alliance forces, composed of warriors, mages, and commanders from various races, were now reduced to a battered few… exhausted, wounded, and barely clinging to consciousness, and at the center of it all, Cervic stood on his last legs.
His once-imposing black armor, which had continuously emitted its signature dark and white energies, was now shattered, fragments of it littering the ground, the glow of its power dimming. His grip on his weapon was still firm, blood dripping from his fingertips as he almost struggled to keep himself upright. Every breath he took felt like fire in his lungs, his body screaming in protest, yet his gaze remained locked onto the figure hovering above him.
The Demon Lord remained afloat in the air, his massive figure seemingly untouched by the battle’s intensity. Only a few minor scratches marred his dark armoured skin, the evidence of the fiercest battle Cervic had ever fought, and yet, to the Demon Lord, it had been nothing but an amusement.
His deep, crimson eyes gleamed with sadistic pleasure as he looked down upon the struggling remnants of the alliance. His long, jet-black horns curved elegantly over his head, and his flowing dark robes billowed in the wind, tattered at different places but still exuding an overwhelming dark majesty.
A slow chuckle rumbled from his throat.
"Is this it?" the Demon Lord mused, his voice carrying an amused, mocking tone. "All this effort, all this resistance... just to end up like this? Is this really all you all are capable of?"
His gaze flickered toward Cervic, his smirk widening. "And you, human king. You fought harder than most, I’ll grant you that. But in the end..." He lifted a clawed hand, a sphere of crackling abyssal fire forming in his palm, "all you’ve accomplished is delaying the inevitable."
Cervic said nothing. He simply glared at the Demon Lord, refusing to give him the satisfaction of despair.
The Demon Lord let out an exaggerated sigh, as if disappointed. "Truly, you should be proud. Not many can withstand my power for this long. But that pride?" He grinned. "It means nothing when you’re about to die."
He raised his hand, preparing to unleash the finishing blow.
Meanwhile, in the Demon City…
Far from the battlefield, deep within the heart of the Demon Capital, two figures stood amidst the structures of houses.
The Demon Lord’s children moved with urgency, ensuring the last of the demons were transported safely into the sub-dimension the demon lord’s son had created.
The demon lord’s son, a tall figure clad in flowing obsidian robes, stood near the open rift of his sub-dimension. His eyes flickered with an unreadable intensity as he watched the last of their people step through the portal.
"That’s the last of them," his sister said, exhaling as she turned to him. "We’ve moved nearly everyone who could be saved. Now what?"
he turned to her and gave a small, unreadable smile. "Now? We leave."
His sister frowned. "But father… Father will win, won’t he?" She said, her eyes locked ahead as though she was looking at something far way.
"Yes, he will win," her brother said. "Or so he believes."
The sister narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean? The alliance of other races can’t recover now, at least, I don’t see that happening."
Her brother exhaled, his gaze drifting toward the distant sky, his eyes also locked on to the far away distance, almost as if he could see exactly what was going on in the battle.
"I mean… it isn’t over yet," he murmured. "We need to leave before ’he’ shows up."
His sister raised an eyebrow. "Who?"
Her brother turned to her, his golden eyes reflecting something unknowable.
"You will know soon enough… Later, perhaps, but if we delay, we’ll be found. Regardless of who finds us, it won’t be pretty, after all, I’m very sure our ’father’ can tell that a large portion of his people have vanished, he’ll certainly catch on to what is going on soon… more like take interest."
The urgency in his voice was enough to quell her questioning. Without another word, they turned and vanished into the sub-dimension, just as something shifted in the battlefield.
Back at the Battlefield, just as the Demon Lord was about to release his attack, the air shifted.
Out of nowhere, a weight that appeared out of thin air, unfathomable, crushing, and absolute, descended upon the battlefield.
It was not mere pressure. It was something greater.
The Demon Lord froze in place as his eyes widened slightly. His entire body locked in place, a force unseen gripping him like invisible chains. It was not that he chose not to move, but he simply couldn’t, and the attack he had been preparing also resolved itself as he no longer channeled his energy to it.
Even then, the attack on him wasn’t exactly an attack, nor was it magic… It was simply the presence of something greater than himself.
As it would also appear, the demon lord was not the only one affected by this sudden pressure. One by one, The alliance forced that were still standing fell unconscious, unable to withstand the sheer force of this being’s arrival. Even the most powerful among them barely clung to awareness, their bodies instinctively submitting to the overwhelming aura that had manifested.
Cervic, still struggling to stand, felt it too, dropping to a knee, unable to resist while standing. His battered body trembled, not from weakness, but from instinctive recognition that something beyond him had arrived.
Simultaneously, a dark, swirling portal had torn open above the battlefield.
From it, a man stepped out, his expression was bored.
His movements were casual, unhurried, and yet, the moment he arrived, everything stopped.
As son as he stepped through it, the portal behind him vanished. The man glanced around, his eyes flickering with mild disinterest as he surveyed the battlefield, the corpses, the broken warriors, the stunned Demon Lord.
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He sighed.
"Took longer than I thought to get here," he muttered.
Then, his gaze locked onto the Demon Lord.
The Demon Lord, for the first time, felt a sensation he had long forgotten, something cold, something primal…
Fear.